Helping junior doctors forge their identity in the COVID-19 crisis

Junior doctors face a steep learning curve in healthcare at the best of times, and during a pandemic that curve is steeper still. How does it shape their view of themselves? New research supported by the Health Research Board and the Irish Research Council will engage with recent graduates in the Irish medical system to find out how they are developing professionally during their first year of practice, how they are feeling, and work with them on developing strategies to gain competence, confidence and build resilience that can be incorporated into their future practice. The project will share its findings among medical communities in Ireland and internationally. What is the issue? Junior doctors (interns) are entering the healthcare environment at a time of crisis during the COVID-19 pandemic; they must balance the need to develop clinical competence with the uncertainty of the clinical environment and the psychological impact this may have on them and on their future practice. What will the research project do? The project will survey junior doctors in Ireland to examine their experience of clinical practice, their professional growth and introduce them to wellbeing and coping mechanisms developed over decades of research. What will the impact be? By providing interns with tools to recognise their clinical development and build their psychological resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic, the research will help junior doctors to avoid burnout, and will give them skills to bring forward in their career after the pandemic. Lead researcher Professor Martina Hennessy, Associate Professor, Trinity College Dublin School of Medicine, says: "Being a junior doctor in a time of crisis presents challenges as well opportunities. We believe the increased numbers of interns and supervision will have affected interns' integration into clinical practice, while the uncertainty of practice, workloads and patient outcomes may increase the stressors usually experienced at this important developmental phase of a doctor's practice. It is a dynamic time to be honing professional practice to develop clinical competences, to know your professional boundaries and capacities and to honour your commitment to patients. We believe this research will give us insight into how to support future interns as they transition from medical students to junior doctors."